


Musical Heroes three: Legends

by DDElliott



Series: Musical Heroes [3]
Category: 1960s Music Scene RPF, Dick Dale, Stevie Ray Vaughan (Musician), jimmy Hendricks, surf guitar
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-17
Updated: 2020-06-17
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:41:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24764032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DDElliott/pseuds/DDElliott
Summary: One of the best memories in my adult life. Dick Dale King of the surf guitar.
Series: Musical Heroes [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1393879





	Musical Heroes three: Legends

Musical Heroes : Part Three “King of the surf guitar.”

Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant sang of “going to California” in the 1970’s and it was around that same time that I came into the world. Sure musicians and song writers previously wrote song like “If you’re going to San Francisco.” But it was Zeppelin that summed it up best. The wild, carefree lifestyle and golden beaches and tanned girls beckoned to a pale kid from the east coast, nearly 300 miles from the Atlantic. But in those early days circa 1975 all of the way up into the mid-eighties that my imagination had been mystified by the allure of the west. TV shows, movies and even TV commercials portrayed California, Hollywood, Venice Beach, L.A. like some kind of a faraway fairytale land. And to a small sickly kid just north of Pittsburgh Pa. The sun and surf became my dream for the future. Lying in bed or on the living room couch wrapped up in blankets and sipping ginger ale, I spent a lot of my childhood sick and in and out of hospitals. One thing that always kept me happy and entertained was TV. Every Saturday and Sunday they would show old movies of various genres. One series of movies filmed in the sixties were the beach blanket movies starring Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello. The young people swimming and surfing all day and partying and dancing all night seemed like my kind of life! One other facet of those movies was the music and surf music was really cool as far as I was concerned, it was all part of the package and I was ready. Among the musical acts and bands featured in the club scenes was a tall, cool guy with an amazing gold fleck guitar and his band called Dick Dale and the Deltones. That guy could play like nobody I had ever seen or heard before! 

Fast forward a couple of decades later and while perusing the local music ads and concert listings a much older me sees the ad for a live concert appearance of “Dick Dale and the Deltones!” Now I’m no stranger to revival acts and nostalgia bands but this was different. I knew in my heart that this wasn’t going to be some sloppy old guys teetering around on stage trying to recapture the glory days and I was right! By this part of my life I had taken some sage advice from a hero of mine, “Jerry Only of the MISFITS” a band I loved and respected. We met briefly after a show at the side of the stage and while we were talking I mentioned how I always wanted to play the guitar but my dad forbid it. He looked at me and asked, “You still live with your parents?” I laughed and said “No.” He them smirked and said, “Well go get yourself a guitar then and learn how to play it!” Up until then it had never occurred to me that I could just go out and buy one now! I wasn’t under somebody else’s rules anymore, I could do what I wanted. So by the time I found Dick Dales concert info, I had taught myself how to play the bass, rhythm and lead guitar as well as keyboards and rudimentary drumming. When I finally got to the venue to see my old surf hero live on stage I was really excited and I was not disappointed!  
The venue was a medium sized club, a place I had been to before like when I met and hung out with D.R.I. This time however was different, from the moment Dick Dale took the stage he had everyone in the palm of his hands! This was a professional entertainer from way back and he had the chops to back it up. This man was not some washed up wannabe or dwindling fool. Like a fine wine, a priceless violin or patina covered treasure for long ago, this was a living legend! I was mesmerized by his intensity and agility while playing! Then I saw his guitar in the bright lights of the stage! It was the glittering gold fleck, left handed Fender guitar from the record jackets and pictures and movies I had poured over as a kid! Right there in front of me! But it wasn’t just the precision that he played with or even the playful dexterity with which he executed each bend and twang of that old guitar that struck me so profoundly as it was the carefree confidence and swagger he exuded while telling stories of his long and crazy career. He could have named dropped about a dozen names in order to impress but he never did. He didn’t need cheap gimmicks or flash to impress his audience. He had real talent, the kind that comes from the heart and soul, the kind that comes from millions of hours spent practicing and honing your craft, knowing your instrument. Dick Dale slung that priceless vintage guitar around that stage like a seasoned gunslinger! If that wasn’t enough to slay his eager and devoted audience, he gave a demonstration of how to play the guitar by using drum sticks percussively against the guitar strings while another musician held the instrument up in the air for him! It was for lack of a better word, phenomenal. But wait! He wasn’t done yet! He played all of his hits while explaining the origins of some and anecdotes about others such as when he received a phone call from a modern band he had never heard of asking permission to use one of his songs. He said it was fine with him and was flattered but had no idea who “the black eyed peas” were! That had the audience laughing. The song they wanted to sample was his iconic masterpiece called “miserlou”. 

As a young boy he explained, he heard music coming from an old shack in the woods where he and his friends played and it was there that a man sold him a Ukulele which he learned to toy with but later turned to guitar. At that time in the late forties and early fifties, there were no left handed guitars, only right handed so Dick had to learn how to play his upside down and backwards like another famous lefty. It was when Dick finally moved from Boston out to California and became a surfer that he happened to meet a man a few years his senior and they became friends, surfing and that friend turned out to be a man named Leo Fender. Now for those people who don’t recognize that name, you need to google it and then you will appreciate the importance of that friendship. Leo invited his new buddy Dick over to his workshop and introduced him to his latest invention… a left handed “Fender” guitar! He took that guitar and played it exclusively for his entire career spanning the 1960’S till his final passing on March 16 2019. Dick and Leo worked at designing and building the first 80Watt guitar amp. When everyone in the electrical engineering field and speaker designers said it couldn’t be done. Soon while playing in concert, Dick was pushing those amps to their breaking point and fried those amps so that Leo was forced to go even bigger and the first 100Watt amps were born!

But that night when we stood in rapt attention watching his brilliance and felt his passion for music that he loved. After the show and a brief rest he returned but not on stage. He sat at a small fold out table signing autographs and I simply couldn’t pass up the opportunity to meet the man. I walked up and he extended his hand first. I introduced myself to him and he introduced himself likewise, as if he needed any introduction. I was able to explain my love of his music as it related so much to the movies and beach life while growing up a sick little kid from a small town and he regaled me with stories I’ll never forget. He told me about teaching Stevie Ray Vaughn guitar licks and playing together for hours. He told me how a young man named Jimmy Hendricks took lessons from him and how he desperately tried to give him advice before he left the US to travel over to the UK to start his own band. “I told him, Jimmy, if you wanna last and have a long successful career like mine you need to play your part, record your part and then go home.” “Don’t stay, don’t hang out and go out and party.” “If you get caught up in that world it will eat you up.” “Unfortunately Jimmy didn’t take my advice and went to England and the rest is history.” Dick told me. After a while I worked up the nerve to tell Dick, as he wanted to be called, that I was writing and recording my own music and that I would be honored if he would say something into my digital recorder so I could capture his voice. He grabbed the recorder out of my hand without hesitation and said some of the nicest words anyone has ever said about me into that recorder. “Hi this is Dick Dale king of the surf guitar, I’m talkin to my buddy Dave who is a really great guy. I can tell he’s a very sincere and good person and I’m glad to know him.” 

We said our goodbyes and I left with my best friend and droog, Frank and we went home. I never got the chance to see him again because only a few months later he passed and the world lost a really special man and a priceless talent.


End file.
